This type may be the worst because although the person thinks they are talking to God, they actually spend a good portion of the prayer talking to the Devil. Have you ever heard a prayer like this? You probably have.

Here is an example of one I heard quite recently:

God, we thank you for your many answers to prayer this week, and—Devil! I rebuke you in the name of Jesus—and God, may you guide us and direct us this week according to your will—Satan! I bind you and cast you out with the authority of the name of Jesus!—and God, we especially want to lift up to you today Sister Maynard—Get out Satan! Get out! Leave her alone!—who is struggling with the flu this week—Evil spirit of the flu, get out of her! Leave foul demon!—may you use your power and might to restore her to health…

I’m not sure God likes to share prayers to Him this way. Half of the prayer is a conversation with Him, and the other half is a conversation with the devil. I know that they are praying against the devil, or praying against Satan, but such a practice is not learned from Scripture (the opposite is actually taught: 2 Pet. 2:10-11; Jude 1:9).

Learning to Pray

Where do people learn to pray in all these ways? Not from Scripture. Not from life. Not from logic. Not from having conversations with other people, for nobody talks to one another in any of these ways. There is primarily one place where people learn to pray this way: In prayer meetings. Prayer meetings teach Christians some very bad prayer habits.

In the next several posts, I want to encourage Christians to pray more and attend prayer meetings less. I intend to show how prayer meetings usually do not help us accomplish God’s mission in the world, but hinder it instead. We will look at a few of the pitfalls of prayer meetings, and address a few passages that teach about prayer, before finally suggesting some ways that churches and Christians can pray with a missional and kingdom-focused mindset.

Comments

Come on. I regualy attend prayer meetings, there are groups of people who spend their whole life in praying together, Jesus took three disciples to pray for Him in the garden, why because He knew the power of it. In the prayer meetings I attend we quite often have the same burden put on us by God in what or who to pray for. I’m sure the satanists are praying or a regular basis together, why do they pray together because they knowni its powerful. We are told that where 2 or more Come Together int Name I will be in the midst of them.

Have we learnt nothing from Jesus “have ye not heard hast thou not seen” Come on, stop making up phylosophy, read what Jesus said and did. When Jesus was with His disciples did He send each of them into a room to pray, come on.

If you haven’t got it now, I wonder if you ever will. Will be easier if I translate it to the Greek?.

By the way I would never pray that way you said you heard someone do. I think the evil one gets enough publicity and assistance as it is. When we pray in a group we ask the Lord to lead us in any way that we with our feeble minds can apprehend, this can be in words, a piece of scripture, a picture or a scene like a vidio, a smell or touch. We first ask God to protect us from any other spirits that may want to lead us astray. We share what we receive and pray into that. We meet for prayer for various reasons, we may prayer for a particular person, government, situation, country etc.

To me corporate prayer is the life blood of the Church. Don’t give up and cause division. Clive

Maybe this type of prayer is rare. I don’t know. I work in a religious setting where I hear these types of prayer several times a week (and all the prayers I have talked about in the past couple posts). This group is also quite legalistic and judgmental, and nothing I try to teach about grace, love, and forgiveness seems to make the slightest difference.

Of course, maybe my last few posts on the subject of prayer have not been as lovingly worded as they should have been, so I need to examine my own heart as well.

You make some good points about prayer, and I think that in general, we are in agreement on the what, why, and how of prayer.

Beginning tomorrow (11/23) I will start focusing on what Scripture says about prayer, and how we can use prayer to encourage more love and service in the community.

Sorry Jeremy, if the people you are with are the way you say they are, I feel you need to find a few like minded friends who will wait on the Lord and take His lead. Jesus said never make a vow, Matthew 5 v 34 as it’s another form of judgement on someone, look what happened to King Saul when he swore many times one example was in 1 Samuel 14 v 44, this type of bragging is a sin and can be used to bully. Jesus said let your yes just be yes and your no the same.

Showing off spiritual gifts to make you look good is just as dangerous as you are not being true to the heart, God knows our heart which is the most deceitful thing. Jeremiah 17 v 9 + Proverbs 12 v 20. Enough said. Clive

I enjoyed your article. I would like to bring to your attention that God Is Love, this means we pray that the Devil is forgiven, just as we pray to also be forgiven. Love your enemies is not excluding spirits. Eating animals, although permitted means you are not ready for complete redemption. Restoration is a reconcilation between the Devil, the spirit of the Devil which humans have in their blood to God. We go as one voice seeking to be with one God. This is a problem christanity can not grasp, Jesus gave you an example of what it means to love one another, yet divison and chaos resulting in the split of the church does not speak highly of acknowledgemen of the cross. The Jewish people did not need Christ. They only needed correction of how to be real or truthful,basically not to do things with lip service while living, performing to acts or deeds to God and others. This is found in what christians call the Old Testament. The God of Jacob who is one with Jesus, meaning we belong to God, set up atonement once a year, Yom Kippur, where the priest would per God perform the sets required by God to clear your sins and the community for that year. Christians can not understand why, this is because the Jews are faithful, obedient, and love God and others, that is why they are the chosen people of God. It would be the Jews that bring a chance for coverage into their family. Jesus is a Jew, on the cross He reminded the world to come, forgive them father for they do not know what they are doing. This is the message of LOVE. Makes no difference who you are or what you believe, judgement is in th hands of the God of Jacob, I AM who I want to be. This is to clear the mind of hatred of anykind. The Devil needs prayers to be accepted into the family of God again. If God created something it means it has value. We all have a speck of LIGHT in our being, from the Creator, when all said and done that speck will return to pure LIGHT. To end the suffering early requires repentance and prayer for yourself, yet most foremost, you need to feel for the suffering God, your Maker, who feels the hate His creatures have. Begin to view creation as one, one creation trying to unit with one God, and not losing anything, even the fallen angels. We are a family, animals, plants, air, soil , etc.

While your ideas appeal to me, I am not sure I can find evidence for them in Scripture. Jesus died, it seems, only for humans, to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. I do not read anywhere that Jesus died to rescue the devil from himself, or from his own sinful rebellion. Maybe this is some mysterious plan of God yet to be revealed, but so far, it seems that He has not revealed this part of His plan (if it exists).

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